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Nicola

How To Set Up A Personal Budget – A Step By Step Guide

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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more info.

Were you ever taught how to set up a personal budget? For something that has such a major effect on our lives, ie, financial stability, we’re taught precious little about the basics. Or, even if we’re given some guidance early on, it just seems to come at the wrong time and we’re not ready to hear it!

So, in this post, I’m going to spend some time talking about how to set up a personal budget, pinpoint some of the pitfalls you may encounter and also give you some personal budgeting tips. You can also download my free  Basic Budget Worksheet  so that you can put what you learn into practice immediately. [Read more…] about How To Set Up A Personal Budget – A Step By Step Guide

5 Tips For Creating a Sense of Wellbeing

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Many of us struggle on a daily basis with creating a sense of wellbeing. Often our internal monologue feeds us a stream of pessimism, beating us up over the things we haven’t done, reminders of our failures along with thoughts of the people we think we’ve offended and a list of ‘should haves’ which could equal a telephone directory. We then supplement this with a daily dose of ‘news’ just to make sure that we haven’t missed anything worthy of our negative attention.

Naturally this isn’t going to do much to improve our sense of wellbeing. That elusive feeling of calmness, balance, control or serenity, to name but a few adjectives which the word ‘wellbeing’ might conjure up for you.

But there are ways you can regain or create a sense of wellbeing, and they are well worth the effort of doing. Because creating a sense of wellbeing has a profound knock on effect for your life and also has the added benefit of being cumulative. By that, I mean the more you do it, the more you get! Win-win!

So if you’re in need of a boost to your sense of wellbeing, try some or all of these tips. Work them into your daily routine and remind yourself often (we sometimes just forget to do these things) so that you can maintain your sense of wellbeing over the long term. [Read more…] about 5 Tips For Creating a Sense of Wellbeing

My Personal Goals Progress Update March 2017

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personal goals progress

Here’s my personal goals progress update for March 2017! You can check out my detailed list of 2017 Goals here. Writing publicly about my progress is one of the most effective methods of accountability I’ve found. Consequently, I’m aiming to produce a monthly update right through 2017.

Writing up my personal goals progress report is an important part of keeping me on track and accountable. It’s also a really useful method to review what is and isn’t working. Sometimes that will mean that some goals will change or be removed altogether. But the great thing is that these are my goals, so I can change them as often as I like! If you choose to write up or already have some personal goals then doing a regular review and write up is a great way to stay on track!

So here’s my March update… 🙂 [Read more…] about My Personal Goals Progress Update March 2017

Lyme Park: 2017 Travel Goals

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Lyme Park2017 Travel Goals – Mystery Trip

Once again, I’m going to document our travels. Travelling is an annual goal and as in 2015, we have set ourselves a number of places we’d like to visit in the UK. There’s a possibility that we will travel overseas later in the year, but that has yet to be finalised.

You may recall from My 2017 Goals list that we have 6 overnight/weekend trips planned for this year. The first of these has recently taken place.

Earlier in March we set out on what was a ‘Mystery Trip’ for me as my husband had made the plans in secret. He did well to keep the details under his belt until a few days before we left, which gave me just enough time to know what I needed to pack! [Read more…] about Lyme Park: 2017 Travel Goals

Mental Strength – Is it Necessary?

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mental strengthWe all know someone who exhibits mental strength. Indeed, we may feel that we are someone who has mental strength. But what exactly is it? We instinctively know that it relates to the ability to tough it out whether in difficult circumstances or when we’re trying to succeed at something that is challenging. We may also consider resilience to be a key attribute of mental strength or it could be displayed in people with a positive attitude.  Still others might be tenacious, whatever the circumstances.

For me, the definition of ‘fortitude’ gives a pretty good description of what I consider mental strength to be (taken from dictionary.com):

mental and emotional strength in facing difficulty, adversity, danger, or temptation courageously

But whatever definition of mental strength you use, there are a number reasons why it’s important to improve mental strength.

Mental Strength will give you the ability to keep moving

Being tenacious is a major contributing factor to the success of your goals. Life will always throw obstacles, challenges and difficulties in our way. From the birthday buns at work, to the heavy rain when you’ve planned a run or a hike.  From the red tape slowing your career progress, to illnesses, and challenging relationships which take up more of our time than we anticipate.

Add to that our own inclination to be scared, fearful or just plain lazy and the need for mental strength becomes obvious. [Read more…] about Mental Strength – Is it Necessary?

Your Future Starts Here So Make It Great!

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your future starts here

Your Future Starts Here!

I’ve recently noticed that I’m talking to myself more than usual. Not in the random-thoughts-passing-through-my-head kind of way, although I’m sure that is still happening. But rather, I’m consciously referring to myself, and, specifically my ‘tomorrow-self’.

It seems to have happened since writing about the importance of not overloading our future selves with too many commitments by assuming that Me-in-the-future will be richer, stronger, more energetic etc! However, scientific studies supports this overly-optimistic assumption. On one level or another, we all believe that our future self will be able to pick up the tab for our current actions.  And fortunately or, in some cases, unfortunately that’s true, because your future starts here!

What Have You Done?

If you’re not convinced, think about your past and how it’s now affecting your present. Here are some questions for you to consider along with my truths:

Are you as healthy as you thought you’d be?

I know I’m not, and to this day, I hate taking my daily blood pressure lowering tablet (even though I don’t really know the cause of my high BP, maybe it’s familial, maybe it’s lifestyle or a combination of both). But if you check out my goals, you’ll know that I’m actively trying to undo the actions of my past by exercising more and eating healthier. It would be easy to blame the aging process for this turn of events, but age didn’t force me to eat rubbish or give up on regular exercise! [Read more…] about Your Future Starts Here So Make It Great!